In ink-jet printing methods, droplets of ink are projected onto a recording medium from very fine nozzles and allowed to adhere to the recording medium to obtain printed matters on which characters, images, etc., are printed. The printed matters are required to have high optical density and gloss, whereas the inks for ink-jet printing are required to have a high ejection property. In addition, color filters for liquid crystal displays are required to exhibit high contrast ratio and brightness. Therefore, pigments used in the inks for ink-jet printing and color filters are in the form of fine pigment particles having a very small primary particle size.
As the method of obtaining a fine organic pigment by reducing a primary particle size of a pigment as a raw material, there are extensively used wet kneading and milling methods such as solvent salt milling, dry milling methods, etc. The solvent salt milling means a milling method of atomizing a powder, etc., by a wet kneading method using a water-soluble inorganic salt as pulverization media. For example, by mechanically kneading the raw material pigment and the water-soluble inorganic salt together with a water-soluble organic solvent, it is possible to pulverize the pigment and reduce a primary particle size of the pigment.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a process for producing a fine organic pigment in the presence of an alkaline substance by a solvent salt milling method.